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Waterbrook Press News

Mary C. Neal, MD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller To Heaven and Back (WaterBrook Press), will be featured on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network in a new series called “In Deep Shift” which will air on Sunday, February 8 at Noon EST. Filmmaker Jonas Elrod hosts the 30-minute weekly program which features individuals whose lives have been transformed by an extraordinary event.

In To Heaven and Back, Neal, an orthopaedic surgeon in Jackson, Wyo., recounts the experience of her drowning during a kayaking accident in South America and her journey to heaven where she communicated with angels and ultimately returned to earth to share what she learned.

Neal has appeared on “Today,” “Fox and Friends,” “Hour of Power,” “Marie” and “Katie,” as well as dozens of radio programs and been featured in Guideposts and Christianity Today. Released in May 2012, To Heaven and Back spent 14 weeks ranked #1 on the New York Times “Advice, How To, Misc. Best-seller List” and has sold more than 750,000 copies.

The first American Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly and his wife Amber have signed a major book deal with WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, a division of the Crown Publishing Group at Penguin Random House. The yet untitled book is scheduled for release from WaterBrook Press in Summer 2015, in print and digital formats, to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the surge in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

When American doctor and Samaritan’s Purse missionary Kent Brantly was diagnosed with Ebola in July 2014, the epidemic in West Africa became headline news in the United States. His emergency medical transfer from Liberia to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, along with fellow missionary Nancy Writebol, is an extraordinary story of medical advancements in conjunction with God’s grace.

Following Kent’s release, the Brantlys have been active in addressing the Ebola epidemic and are in high demand for media interviews and speaking engagements. Kent was included on the cover of TIME Magazine’s “2014 Person of the Year” issue recognizing “The Ebola Fighters.”

Alex Field, WaterBrook Multnomah vice president and publisher, and Bruce Nygren, senior editor, jointly acquired at auction North American print, electronic and serial rights. The Brantlys are represented by Chris Park at Foundry Literary + Media.

“We are thrilled to partner with Kent and Amber on this book project. After spending time with the Brantlys, I’ve been deeply impressed by their sincere desire to follow their passion and calling to help others. Their book will be about how God called them to serve the people of West Africa, and along the way, readers will experience what the Brantlys experienced in the chaos of the Ebola epidemic. We believe that their story will inspire many readers to follow God’s calling for their own lives as a result,” said Field.

Writer David Thomas will assist the Brantlys with chronicling their journey. Thomas’s credits include the New York Times bestseller Foxcatcher, with Mark Shultz, which has been adapted into the Golden Globe and Academy Award nominated film starring Steve Carell. Nygren is the project’s editor.

If you and I are new to each other, let me start here: This is not how this was supposed to go! In the portrait I had long ago painted of my family, I didn’t intend to include words like “widowed single mom.” I had envisioned many more decades with my husband Robb in the complicated, beautiful life of marriage. But in the course of twelve hours, our family of four became a trio, and since that day my boys and I have been creating a new life in an upside-down world.

I have written this new book, which in a lot of ways is a sequel to And Life Comes Back, to answer the question so many have asked: “And then what happened—after the crisis became reality and your life began again?” I’ve leaned into honest storytelling to offer a look into the chaos and beauty of who we have become.

I’ll be honest, this book was harder to write because I’m living it right now—I hardly feel like an expert who has figured it out. I hope my straight-up-honest stories will give you encouragement to take the next step. And the next. And the next.

Sometimes, you just have to pretend you know what you’re doing, pretend you’re brave enough, and pretend you can do this. Sometimes you just have to pretend you’re normal until the new normal finds you.

Each of us spends our lives on a journey toward God. Yet often our most deeply felt longings—for meaning, for love, for significance—end up leading us away from, instead of toward, our Creator and the person he made us to be.

Finding Your Way Back to God shows you how to understand and listen to your longings in a whole new way. It’s about waking up to who you really are, and daring to believe that God wants to be found even more than you want to find him. It’s about making the biggest wager of your life as you ask God to make himself known to you. And it’s about watching what happens next.

The 1757 New York frontier is home to the Oneida tribe and to British colonists, yet their feet rarely walk the same paths.

On the day Fort William Henry falls, Major Reginald Aubrey is beside himself with grief. His son, born that day, has died in the arms of his sleeping wife. When Reginald comes across an Oneida mother with newborn twins, one white, one brown, he makes a choice that will haunt the lives of all involved. He steals the white baby and leaves his own child behind. Reginald’s wife and foundling daughter, Anna, never suspect the truth about the boy they call William, but Reginald is wracked by regret that only intensifies with time, as his secret spreads its devastating ripples.

When the long buried truth comes to light, can an unlikely friendship forged at the wood’s edge provide a way forward? For a father tormented by fear of judgment, another by lust for vengeance. For a mother still grieving her lost child. For a brother who feels his twin’s absence, another unaware of his twin’s existence. And for Anna, who loves them both—Two Hawks, the mysterious Oneida boy she meets in secret, and William, her brother. As paths long divided collide, how will God direct the feet of those who follow Him?